I bought the 2017 Nvidia Shield 16GB for the express purpose of using it as a Plex Media Server (PMS). In December 2017, Plex updated the Live TV/DVR functionality and Nvidia Shield is widely regarded as the best standalone Android TV, so I decided to invest. Note, I get my TV signal from an HD Homerun Prime. I bought an Nvidia approved 128GB Corsair USB stick drive to expand the internal storage for the PMS, and a 4TB Western Digital drive for storing recordings.
However, live TV playback is choppy and frequently pauses and freezes. I’ve tried to change numerous settings, notably disabling video thumbnails. The most damning evidence is that a Plex Media Server running on Windows 10 PC on the same network has none of these problems. I don’t know if Nvidia Shield isn’t powerful enough or the Plex software is buggy, but it is not working. The playback is so broken, that I would caution anyone buying an Nvidia Shield, if your primary goal is to use it as a Plex Media Server, that the whole setup feels unfinished.
Has anyone had a positive experience with their Nvidia Shield and Live TV with Plex? If so what was your system setup?
My Nvidia shield is stellar, your problem is not the shield not be powerful enough, I have the 16gig with a 1tb drive for internal storage, my shield plays everything I throw at it, I do not have an hdhomerun prime, I just do ota, I have a duo and Quatro so not sure what your issue is but don’t think it’s the shield, have you tried using the silicon dust hdhomerun app on your shield to see if live tv plays okay with that?
Thanks for the feedback @rljnc. The HD Homerun Prime works fine when I watch TV on my Windows 10 PC. I haven’t thought to troubleshoot the HD Homerun Prime, but I’m not sure where to begin with that. I’ve done a factory reset of the Nvidia Shield and reconfigured everything, but that didn’t seem to work. You mention that you use a 1TB drive as internal storage. I wonder if I should try using the 4TB drive as internal storage, but I’m worried it might not be fast enough.
I assume your shield is wired and not on WiFi, I would just for test install the hdhomerun app on your shield and see how your live tv works using it, it’s free so why not.
I have the Nvidia Shield wired to my network. I checked the HD Homerun app on the Shield and TV streaming works perfectly. Looks like it has something to do with Plex. @rljnc have you configured your PMS in any particularly special way?
No particular setup, nothing special. You say you have PMS running on a windows 10 machine, have you tried connecting to that server on your shield instead of the one running on the shield, and then watch live tv and see if you get same results, assume you have latest versions of plex running on everything.
I updated my HD Homerun Prime, but I do not think this solved my problem. Note that the HD Homerun firmware can be checked at my.hdhomerun.com. I did use my Windows 10 Plex Media Server to stream TV to the Plex client on the Nvidia Shield and the playback was perfect.
Unfortunately, the TV streaming from the Nvidia Shield PMS is still buggy. Sometimes I see a “Weak Signal” error. Sometimes the commercials stop and start with playback happening in fast-forward with squeaky voices. Sometimes playback still freezes.
I’m ready to try another factory reset. I don’t understand why my system is not working. Does anyone suspect my Corsair USB stick is the problem? Should I try formatting my Western Digital USB 3.0 drive as internal storage?
After learning about @rljnc setup, I started configuring my Nvidia Shield TV a bit differently and performing a factory reset from the fast boot menu. I was surprised to find the culprit in my setup was the Corsair USB drive! This was a shock, because an official NVIDIA post specifically recommended the model I was using. I removed the USB stick drive from my setup and instead formatted the Western Digital 4TB USB 3.0 drive as internal storage. Only after a factory reset, then formatting the WD drive as internal storage, and then setting up the Plex Media Server did I find success. For extra measure I made sure the HD Homerun Prime firmware was up to date as @stuartf1 suggested.
In conclusion, I feel confident in recommending the NVIDIA Shield TV for use as a Plex Media Server, but with the caveat that configuring the Shield with an external or network drive may require troubleshooting. I wonder if I should have gone with the Shield Pro model.
